Has anyone here ever ordered alphonso mangoes online? Any recommended sites/purveyors? Google brings me up lots of different options, but would prefer to get some recommendations/somebody vouching for a specific company.

Rahsaan,The closest I have come to Alphonso mangoes in the US have been the canned mango puree versions,which unfortunately is not the real thing! I feel the East coast is better blessed with this import than the left coast. And I agree that a stern tone might help

Shaji M wrote:Rahsaan,The closest I have come to Alphonso mangoes in the US have been the canned mango puree versions,which unfortunately is not the real thing! I feel the East coast is better blessed with this import than the left coast. And I agree that a stern tone might help

Canned puree sounds frightening! Yes, I think east coast shops in cities with large Indian populations do carry them, but there are also lots of websites where you can order them directly to your house, regardless of where you live. I'm just trying to sort through which website may be more reliable.

Good luck, Rahsaan. Interesting how many varieties of mangos there are in the world vs. what anyone on the west coast tends to see in stores, generically labeled just 'mangoes'. Go to Hawaii and they're specific about this type or that--names we never hear--and long discussions about which is best occur frequently. I bought some small yellow mangoes at Whole Foods last weekend. They're sometimes called Phillipine mangoes and seem to have many other names too.

Btw, anyone ever eat the peel? A Kenyan family I knew ate the little Phillippine mangoes like apples, out of hand, peels and all. They do taste good, though I wouldn't now recommend any that one couldn't be sure had been grown pesticide-free.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Jenise wrote:I bought some small yellow mangoes at Whole Foods last weekend. They're sometimes called Phillipine mangoes and seem to have many other names too..

On the east coast Whole Foods stocks small yellow mangoes from Mexico that they call 'champagne mangoes'. They can be very good and have been a key part of previous Aprils, but with my diminished off-season fruit options I have been thinking about the internet. Plus, there is so much hyperbole about alphonso mangoes from India being the 'king of mangoes', I figured it might be worth exploring.

Jenise wrote:I bought some small yellow mangoes at Whole Foods last weekend. They're sometimes called Phillipine mangoes and seem to have many other names too..

On the east coast Whole Foods stocks small yellow mangoes from Mexico that they call 'champagne mangoes'. They can be very good and have been a key part of previous Aprils, but with my diminished off-season fruit options I have been thinking about the internet. Plus, there is so much hyperbole about alphonso mangoes from India being the 'king of mangoes', I figured it might be worth exploring.

That's it, the ones I bought on Sunday (at WF) they called Champagne Mangoes. Same thing I originally knew by the other name mentioned. Do love them! I don't think I've ever had an alfonso. Btw, once many years ago when I lived in Britain, I ran across a mango unlike any I've seen since. It was, first of all, huge. It was football sized, an absolute two-hander, and the skin was a bright sunset pink all over--no green whatsoever. I was far from home that day and had to carry this monster on foot and by train some distance, which was terribly inconvenient but it was just so exceptional looking (and smelling) that I couldn't not buy it (the green grocer I purchased it from had but the one). And I was rewarded--it was the best mango I had ever had up to that point, with a deep orange flesh.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Right; but it wasn't. Wonder how many different varieties there actually are? Maybe not as many as apples (around 2500) but I'm sure many more than we'd ever know based on supermarket selection. My Kenyan friends talked of picking them growing wild along the beaches--they'd wade into the water to eat them, so that the dripping juices would just wash away.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

The answer to the question about number of mango varieties? Over 400. The most impressive fact I found is that they are long-lived and long-bearing, to which the adjective "extremely" should be applied as some trees have been documented as having born fruit for up to 300 years.

Btw, if any of you ever see a 'mango nectarine': BUY. Similar in size to all the Pluots that have thankfully come into the marketplace, with barely-fuzzy green skin, they're one of the most dazzling new fruits I've tasted in years. Unfortunately, probably not successful due to the color being too unusual for that ridiculously unfair and low-brow arbiter of all things fruit: school kid lunches. I only saw them one season, but they might show up more urbane locales.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

So far I've had two shipments, with canistel, mamey, Asian guava, and sapodilla. I'd never even heard of canistel or sapodilla and those were the two most exciting. Canistel was like sweet egg custard and the sapodilla is like a kiwi meets brown sugar pear. Always fun to add new flavors and textures to my life! I'd had mamey in Mexico and these ones from Robert is Here were not the best, although it is apparently the end of the season. Asian Guava was delicious and very good quality, although not as new to my life.

That said, it helps that I can do two-day ground from Florida, because I think elsewhere in the States it would have to be air, which would make it very very expensive instead of just slightly expensive.

I really look forward to those and enjoy them a lot. I like to make a "salad" with alternating slices of perfectly ripe Ataulfo mango and perfectly ripe avocado. Dress with a little Major Grey chutney, it's pretty exquisite. Sometimes I include some "clean" grapefruit segments. I take apart a grapefruit the way chefs do so you end up with no outer membranes or white stuff just the little juice-bags clinging together in each segment. Those segments are called "suprèmes" just like a perfectly cleaned up chicken breast.

I really look forward to those and enjoy them a lot. I like to make a "salad" with alternating slices of perfectly ripe Ataulfo mango and perfectly ripe avocado. Dress with a little Major Grey chutney, it's pretty exquisite. Sometimes I include some "clean" grapefruit segments. I take apart a grapefruit the way chefs do so you end up with no outer membranes or white stuff just the little juice-bags clinging together in each segment. Those segments are called "suprèmes" just like a perfectly cleaned up chicken breast.

Yes, they are really good and we've been eating a bunch over the past month, although the supply dried up a bit in recent weeks. That salad sounds good in theory, although in practice can you as a layperson (without your own specialty farm) your get good specimens of each ingredient? Those are 3 different seasons you're including at the same time.

It's true that the mangoes appear and disappear from the stores -- but I get good avocados pretty much year round. I suppose you have higher standards than I do but if it's ripe, I'm gonna like it, even if the flavor is mild. I don't buy grapefruit that often, my meds don't like grapefruit, and I guess I haven't noticed that it's seasonal. When would you say those 3 seasons are, I'm serious about asking, I would like to know. I do know that sometimes grapefruits are so ripe and sweet that you can eat 'em like an orange, but mostly they are pretty harsh which probably means unripe, out of season.

Frank Deis wrote:It's true that the mangoes appear and disappear from the stores -- but I get good avocados pretty much year round. I suppose you have higher standards than I do but if it's ripe, I'm gonna like it, even if the flavor is mild. I don't buy grapefruit that often, my meds don't like grapefruit, and I guess I haven't noticed that it's seasonal. When would you say those 3 seasons are, I'm serious about asking, I would like to know. I do know that sometimes grapefruits are so ripe and sweet that you can eat 'em like an orange, but mostly they are pretty harsh which probably means unripe, out of season.

Citrus is Dec-March, with the peak in Jan-Feb, at least in my east coast shopping. Depending where you are and what their source is, you might get decent variants of citrus in April, but I'm usually not impressed and grapefruit tends to peter out earlier than other variants, at least in my experience.

I know there are all sorts of varieties of avocado that ripen throughout the year, but prime time for Hass (which dominates US stores) is summer, and in my experience although decent specimens may show up in late April/early May, they really start rockin' in June July August.

And then the champagne mangos seem best in April and May. So I guess you might get a peak version of that salad in late March early April, but there are tradeoffs. Still, those tradeoffs are not necessarily bad if it works with the dish. And it is an interesting idea I had not thought of.